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In an interview with the Fox Business Network broadcast on Thursday, Trump said he was very disappointed that China did not contain the disease and that the pandemic had shelved its January trade deal with Beijing, which it had previously hailed as an important achievement.
“They should never have let this happen,” Trump said. “So I make a great commercial deal and now I say it doesn’t seem the same to me. The ink was barely dry and the plague came. And it doesn’t seem the same to me.”
Trump’s pique spread to Xi, with whom the President of the United States has repeatedly said he has a good relationship.
“But I just … right now I don’t want to talk to him,” Trump said in the interview, which was taped Wednesday.
More about Covid-19
Trump was asked about a Republican senator’s suggestion that American students who apply to study in fields related to national security, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, be denied US visas.
“There are many things we could do. We could do things. We could cut the whole relationship,” he replied.
“Now if you did, what would happen? You would save $ 500 billion,” Trump said, referring to estimated annual imports from the United States from China, which he often refers to as lost money.
The comment provoked ridicule from Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of China’s influential tabloid Global Times newspaper, who referred to Trump’s highly criticized comments last month about how Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, could be treated.
“This president once suggested that Covid-19 patients inject disinfectants,” Hu said on Twitter. “Remember this and you won’t be surprised when he said he could cut the entire relationship with China.”
United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Fox Business Network that China needed to provide much more information about the coronavirus and Trump was reviewing his options.
“The President is concerned. He is reviewing all his options. Obviously, we are very concerned about the impact of this virus on the economy, on American jobs, on the health of the American public, and the President will do everything possible to protect the economy and protect American workers, “said Mnuchin.
“It is a difficult and complex matter and the president has made it very clear, he wants more information. They did not let us in, they did not let us understand what was happening and the American public has the right to understand all the facts.”
Trump and his Republican supporters have accused Beijing of failing to alert the world to the severity and extent of the coronavirus outbreak and of withholding data on the early cases. The pandemic sparked a sharp global recession and threatened Trump’s reelection chances in November.
The United States has been the most affected by the pandemic, according to official data.
China insists that it has been transparent and, amid increasingly bitter exchanges, both sides have questioned the future of the trade deal.
Opponents of Trump have said that while China has much to answer for in the outbreak, it appears to be seeking to divert attention from criticism of its response to the crisis.
‘Dangerous bravado’
Scott Kennedy of the think tank at the Washington Center for Strategic and International Studies called Trump’s remarks “dangerous bravado.”
“Avoiding communication is not an effective strategy to resolve a crisis that requires global cooperation. And severing the economic relationship would seriously harm the American economy,” he said.
Michael Pillsbury, a China analyst who has served as Trump’s external adviser, told Reuters that he believed the President was concerned that China not only wanted to renegotiate the Phase 1 deal, but also had not been meeting the goals of buying. To united states.
He said that according to figures cited by the China Daily, China’s purchases of American products in the first four months of this year were 3% less than during the same period last year.
“This is not good news to reduce the trade deficit or help our economy recover from the coronavirus crisis,” he said.
Under Phase 1 of the trade agreement, Beijing promised to buy at least $ 200 billion in additional goods and services from the US. USA For two years, while Washington agreed to reduce tariffs on Chinese products in stages.
China took some additional steps toward those goals on Thursday, buying soybean oil from the United States for the first time in nearly two years, and issuing customs notices that allowed the importation of American barley and blueberries.
An executive with China’s state agriculture trading house, COFCO, said China was prepared to accelerate purchases of US agricultural products to implement the Phase 1 deal.
The Global Times said Thursday that Beijing was seeking to compartmentalize mounting tensions with Washington.
“(China) still hopes that economic and trade problems will not be politicized because that is not good for either side,” said Li Yong, vice chairman of the Committee of Experts of the China Association for International Trade.
While the US intelligence agencies. USA They have said that the coronavirus does not appear to be man-made or genetically modified, rejecting a theory promoted by some Trump supporters, Trump said in his interview that China should have stopped it at its source.
“Whether from the lab or from the bats, it all came from China, and they should have stopped it,” he said.
“It got out of control.”
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